Excretory urography before prostatectomy.

A study of the pre-operative excretory urograms of 205 patients who had prostatectomy for benign prostatic hyperplasia, over a 5-years period is presented. Seventy-four per cent (74.1%) of the urographic abnormalities were a direct result of prostatic enlargement found on clinical examination. The significant upper tract abnormalities found in 11.0% of the cases were duplex kidneys (3.4%), poor renal excretion (3.8%) and small kidneys (3.8%). None of these was a contraindication to prostatectomy when the blood urea and creatinine levels became normal. No upper tract tumour nor calculus was found in these patients. We conclude that, for the management of patients presenting with urinary retention from BPH, routine pre-operative excretory urography has little or no value and is not worth the expense and delay.